Living with Corona
No, this is not another newsletter or link collection of what is going on in the German-speaking markets. And this is also not an update on infection, recovery and mortality rates. And it also does not enter the debate of whose interpretation of the nature of the virus is right and whose is wrong.
This is a totally subjective summary and partly interpretation of what we as tourism and communication consultants think is relevant. For our country, the hospitality and travel trade industry and the German speaking media world. This is an incredible time for everyone with a lot of anxiety and not-knowing. Information is key, especially when you have to come up with long-term decisions.
We hope you will find our service “Living with Corona” helpful. Please drop us an email if you would like to discuss or if there are further questions.
We are happy to help.
Stay safe, stay well!
Angelika E. Ardelt
Founding Partner & Director
Update No 6 / June 9, 2020
General mobility in Germany is almost back to normal – see graph. Lock-down started with the closure of schools, kitas and universities on March10th. With the introduction of mouth-face-protection on April 28th, four weeks later we are almost back to our normal mobility.
- As of June 8th,182.028 people in Germany were infected, so far 8.522 have died with Covid-19 and 166.400 have weathered the virus. Reproduction factor currently stands at 1.2.
- The New Normal: “Time-slots are trending” – Apps are coming
What is already normal in many countries becomes the “New Normal” in everyday life in Germany now: pre-booked timeslots for dinner, for a visit to the museum, to the zoo etc. Entry to shops is limited by numbers and when going out we have to leave our full address, even for just a cup of coffee.
Beach destinations are mulling over apps to limit access of day visitors to beaches during summer holidays. Registered guests and locals would have unlimited access. Surprisingly, all this works really well without the usual moaning and groaning expected from Germans. - Lift of travel warnings for all 26 EU partner countries plus associated countries such as UK, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein as of June 15th, 2020.
- German court overturns automatic two-week self-quarantine for Germans returning home from outside the EU – in this case from Thailand as no long necessary and hence illegal. This decision is definite.
- Within the EU, regional travel warnings will be imposed again if there are more than 50 new infections over seven consecutive days within a group of 100.000 people.
Update on Covid-19 tests possibilities in Germany:
Some governments and authorities are toying with the idea of demanding a negative Covid-19 test from foreigners before entering their country. The test must not be older than three days and needs to be in a foreign language, at least in English, French or Spanish.
We tried to find out whether we could have such a test done in Germany in order to go on holiday – and the results are more than sobering.
As of June 09th there is no uniform approach to Covid-19 tests in Germany yet. National and regional health authorities are not informed and transferred us with our questions to the family practitioner. The family practitioner is unable to perform such a test due to lack of lab capacity. Centralized labs only test for health reasons. Labs at the airport (Frankfurt and Munich) are currently the only option to get a test done within the requested time frame.
Costs per person vary between 100 and 250 Euros.
- “Entdecke Deutschland”
Germans are strongly encouraged to discover the beauty of their own country this summer and stay at “home”.
For the first time in our history all 16 federal DMOs have signed in on a joint digital campaign and a joint website to push domestic traveling https://entdecke-deutschland.de/ .
A clear concept, minimalism in topics and editorial content and modern story-telling combined with videos and 360°degree photography clearly targets the millennial and digital-savvy target groups.
Topics are: “Ruhige Ecken” (quiet environment), “Lieblingsorte” ( My favourite spot) “”Kleine Abenteuer” (a little bit adventurous ) and “Perfekte Wochenenden“ (perfect weekends). No editorial overload anymore and a clear yes to “less is more” and to lesser known areas and regions in Germany. - 30 % of potential holiday makers will definitely spend their holidays within Germany; 38% are still indecisive, 30% prefer holidays outside Germany but are not sure whether their booked holidays will be possible. A total of 76% believe, holidays within Germany could be a very good option as well. (Reisevor9)
- According to bookingkit, national outdoor adventure and nature travelling is booming again since end of shut-down with currently 85% of bookings against 2019! Especially kayak safaris, climbing, boating and being outdoor are trending.
- Lufthansa has accepted the statutory requirements that come with the bail-out and shared a 3‑year-recovery plan. One of the EU requirements was to hand-over attractive slots at the hubs in Munich and Frankfurt which is not such a big deal as international and European requests for slots have naturally collapsed right now. All that is missing are the frequent travelers to fill the planes. LH currently flies to 100 destinations –the load factors are top secret.
In May we conducted a survey among 350+ senior editors of travel media (print & online) in DACH to learn first-hand about their plans for the future of their travel magazines and travel pages in post-corona times. We also wanted to learn more about topics & stories they might be interested and to get a clearer idea of how tourism pr agency can support them best.
The answers of the travel writers and editors in a nutshell:
- Travel pages are no “Corona Ticker” but want to remain a source of travel inspiration.
As previously, editors want to stress the beauty of travel, encourage discovering different cultures and see themselves as travel story-tellers. PR departments may only encourage or help with story-telling. But the story-writing and telling is done by the editors and their teams. And this will make traveling necessary the sooner the better. Everyone is really keen on research and press trips asap. - Right now editors are flooded with commercial information (vouchers, travel later-book now, added benefits for bookings) from agencies and tourism companies. They have asked us spreading the news that this is not what they need. As before Corona, commercial information will not be picked up by media and belong into the field of marketing communication or social media – even better on the home page or to be used in direct marketing.
- Top 5 most immediate travel topics for editors after the shut-down:
- Travelling within Germany. Austrian media concentrate on Austria and Swiss media on Switzerland; Trips within Europe avoiding over-tourism destinations
- Dream destinations – international travel. Stories, destinations that have a long shelf-time or have been Germans/Austrians or Swiss’ favourite already in the past.
- Individual trips – no group travel (but that was already the same before Corona)
- Niche topics, such as bike tours, kayak-safaris, stories from B and C destinations avoiding over-tourism
- Service & News Guides – Everything that helps to build up trust and confidence in national and international travel again.
Top 5 least relevant travel topics after the shut-down:
- Awards& accolates
- Corona safety and hygiene protocols. Not the umpteenth hand sanitizer again!! Corona related news when it is necessary for the story or extraordinary. Like the NZ’s prime minster dance of joy, when NZ was declared corona-free!
- Cruises and incentives for cruises.
- Commercial information (see above) especially not voucher info. Voucher are a sensitive topic in Germany anyway.
- Uninspiring product information (renovations, refurbishments, “We are open”)
Media plans for the future?
We wanted to know how corona may change or influence future travel pages.
The past 12 weeks demanded a lot of flexibility and were a constant race against ever changing situations. Long-term planning was a thing of the past and improvising and experimenting with new formats (virtual interviews, zoom meetings, youtube sport sessions, Spotify lists, online cooking classes) found its way to the online and even sometimes print editions. Media learnt to be more agile with their content, and content became more creative and professional.
- High on the wish list of senior editors is that we all (clients and pr agencies) keep up this high level of professionalism and creativity and keep developing it even further. The good old press release has long stopped being a means that goes straight to the printer. It is a source of information but needs to accompanied by further suggestions of how to spin this story, by a great service section, outstanding imagery and film sequences and so on.
- As soon as the indiv. travel policy of the editing houses will allow, travel writers will start travelling again.
- Some may be considering working with correspondents when it comes to international travel but that has its natural limits.
At this point it is not clear how the new travel policies may change and whether special insurances may become applicable.
Social Media:
- Currently,high-end influencers concentrate more on cooperations outside tourism mainly interior design, fashion, sport, nutrition and babycare & home stories.
- Travel bloggers concentrate on Germany and Europe or produce throw-backs and have started making plans for their first international travels again.
It looks as if the show is ready to begin again …..
Update No 5 / May 14, 2020
- Phase TWO has started with gradual re-opening of restaurants, businesses, shops, hair-dressers, gyms, museums etc. with hotels & public swimming pools to follow end of this month. Angela Merkel has now handed over responsibility to the cabinet and federal ministers
- Currently we have no unanimous rules®ulations in place. Every county defines their own relaxation of the lockdown. Should the infection rate rise again, very strict local confinement measures will be applied under the responsibility of the local or regional governments.
In other words: a new, nation-wide shut-down scenario is very unlikely in the near future. - Social distancing is still mandatory as much as mouth/nose masks. Contact restrictions in public space have been slightly lifted. Some federal states allow events of up to 100 people.
- Borders to our neighbouring countries are about to open with first tentative test-runs with Austria and France this week. Switzerland, Denmark, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium, Luxembourg will follow next if bilateral agreements can be reached.
- The necessity for 14-days mandatory self-quarantine upon return to Germany when travelling within the EU has been overruled by our constitutional court. It becomes only applicable when returning from a third country. It is a good guess that this order is going to be overruled as well pretty soon.
“Temperature checks may become part of Airline Boarding Processes”
- The European sections of ACI (Airports Council International) is working on a concept for mandatory temperature screenings for all embarking and disembarking passengers before security control.
The German section (ADV) is not in favour of this initiative as it is considered as un-reliable (it catches only between 25 and 50 percent) and far too slow. The German section is more in favour of self-responsibility and random checks. Also, thermal cameras could be an option or digital health passports or apps carrying COVID-19 test results. - Frankfurt and Munich Airports are ready for going back to the new normal: Social distancing is applied with seat-blockers and markers on the floor. Plexiglass separates guests and staff, facial masks are mandatory in sensitive areas, check-in will be done in much smaller groups and frequency of shuttles busses will be increased.
- More and more airports are going to introduce self-paid quick tests for Covid-19. After about three hours waiting in a dedicated area incoming passengers may know whether they are positive or negative. It is not clear yet, whether the new tests make self-quarantine after international travels unnecessary.
Currently in place at Vienna Airport. - All airlines make facial masks mandatory throughout the whole flight. No information yet on changes to the inflight service.
Germany says “Yes” to their summer holidays
Germany is a beautiful country with more than 130 national parks, biosphere reserves and nature parks and more than 200.000 km of marked walking trails and over 70.000 km of long-distance cycle routes. Almost endless opportunities for an action-packed active holiday. And yet, it is not enough space for the expected sudden release of pent-up customer demand this coming summer.
Germans are travel world champions and we want to remain travel world champions.
Following are fife reasons why summer holidays in Germany alone is hardly an option for all 82 Million Germans:
- Germans love beach holidays but there is not enough hotel and B&B capacity especially not in the typical holiday destinations with a shore line along the Baltic Sea and along the North Sea
In total, Germany’s shoreline only accounts for 2.400 km, all islands included. - Water temperature and swimming options. North Sea has enormous tidal flats. Both North Sea and Baltic Sea have an average water temperature of between 13 degrees to up to 19/20 degrees in August. Too cold for most of the holiday makers. Yes, there are beautiful lakes in Germany. But a lake is not the sea or ocean, right?
- In order to reduce the number of potential holiday makers and thus the risk of re-infections, the local governments of the four main domestic summer counties – Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower-Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Bavaria – have set-up certain rules such as a minimum of seven nights stay and a reduction of bookable hotel capacity by 50 %. This will reduce capacity even more.
- Less than 10 % of Germans book their domestic summer holiday through travel agencies let alone tour operators. Even if Germany had the bed capacity for all domestic travels it would not help the ailing travel industry. And this industry is in dire demand for business.
- Summer holidays in Germany have been expensive in the past and will get more expensive. The German Ferry Association North Sea has just announced to increase the already very high ferry fare by 50% this summer.
Germans want to get OUT and out also means crossing borders.
News from large tour operators: Longest Booking Window ever!
- Now , that TUI has secured enough financial sources, TUI is hoping to open up typical summer destinations for Germans such as Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Portugal, the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands step by step for summer holidays.
- It is the first time in history that we can book holidays up to 510 days in advance! FTI has opened bookings for summer 2021 with emphasis on package holidays to Egypt, Turkey, UAE, Oman Morocco, Tunisia, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany and city trips worldwide.
In a next step long-haul package holidays will be opened on Amadeus/Bistro with emphasis on USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand.
News from popular summer destinations:
All tourism authorities are keen to re-open as quickly as possible with various scenarios. Regaining TRUST is the core communication message of all their marketing activities.
Private sector and hotels in all destinations are going to increase their digital services to reduce the number of people and waiting time, especially during check-in or at ticket boxes.
All Ministries of Tourism believe that word of mouth from first guests on their easy, relaxing and safe “Travels with Corona” will bring the necessary push for further booking. The prime objective therefore is to get it right throughout the whole customer journey and at every single travel touch-point.
Following is a brief summary of what individual countries are doing & communicating to attract bookings from Germany.
Turkey & Egypt:
- Both hotel associations put special emphasis on hygiene and on extra staff training. Self-service and buffets will be a thing of the past.
- The majority of hotels in Turkey& Egypt are rather large which is seen as an advantage as applying social distancing in all resort/hotel areas is easier in a large hotel on max. 50 % capacity.
- Turkish hotels will also increase the number of medically trained staff and the number of in-house, German-speaking doctors.
- Egypt will increase digital services & and re-think the transfer challenges – more private limousine and taxi rather than large buses. With coach transfers, Egypt intends to learn from the airline industry.
Spain:
- Spain is in a difficult situation as it was/is hit so hard by Corona. Safety / security has top priority for Spain. The Government is currently working on a “Covid-Free” Label” for hotels and will increase the number of social distancing guards on the beaches and in touristic hotspots.
- Balearic Islands: Spain eases the complete shut-down by opening up the smaller islands first (Formentera, La Gomera, El Hierro, La Graciosa). Domestic travel will be allowed as of June 22nd. Most likely European or even international travel will become possible as well as of this date.
- Canary Islands: The smaller islands have been allowed out of shut-down, however under very strict conditions that make joint guest experiences pretty difficult.
Turismo de Gran Canaria has been granted 5 Mio Euros for a repositioning of the island’s image.
Turismo de Tenerife is ready to bounce back with a radically new image and strategy and new target groups: Young travelers and young families who have previously avoided Tenerife because of its old-age pensioner image. Currently, the tourism industry is working on an orchestrated relaunch-strategy to be ready for their high season Oct. through to April.
Tenerife wants to become an “intelligent travel destination.”
Portugal:
- Portugal has not had many Covid-19 cases. It has executed a rather efficient and tough crisis communication and will be one of the first countries with a “Clean& Safe” certificate for the whole tourism industry. To receive this certificate every single tourism sector from tour guide to hotel operator must follow a very strict protocol for staff security, hygiene and guest relations.
Greece:
- Greece is hoping to fully bounce back in July following a strict 7step protocol set up by the government. Hotels and restaurants will open as of June 1st to the domestic market
Update No 4 / April 29, 2020
- Against strong advice from most virologists, our government has gradually eased lockdown measures with the effect that Germany is a real rag rug now when it comes to rules®ulations.
Shops under 800 square metres were allowed to open their doors to the public under certain hygiene rules. Schools will gradually start reopening from May 4th however with very different solutions for the age groups.
Bars, cafes, restaurants, cinemas, music venues and most of the hotels will all remain closed until further notice. - Another major topic is how to end our football season with nine more match days until the finals. Some counties have opened their golf courses for their members and reduced the number per flight to two. And yet, all playgrounds for children, Kitas and Kindergarden remain closed nation-wide until further notice.
- All big events have been cancelled nationally until end of September. Currently Ministers are discussing solutions for Christmas markets.
- Social distancing rules are still in place and wearing facial masks in shops and on public regional transport has become mandatory– but not when travelling on the ICE or EC trains.
- World-wide travel warning: German passports will remain in our drawers until at least June 14th, 2020 our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Heiko Maas, just announced. With this order, Whitsun Holidays may officially be cancelled now.
Heiko Mass said he is seeking a European answer to the question of travel warnings but does not preclude bilateral agreements either. Without a joint solution, governments will find themselves in the invidious position of having to take politically and electorally sensitive decisions. These decision will have a very, very long shelf-time (currently Italy vs. Germany and Germany – Spain) and very often may have xenophobic implications!!! - It is likely that the EU or indiv. countries may not immediately encourage external travel, preferring to incentivize either staycations or domestic/national travel in an attempt to boost domestic growth and protect national public health.
Decisions on welcoming incoming guests will depend on the infection rate and measures taken in the country of origin. - And finally Lufthansa and Condor – a bit like Dragon’s Den: Lufthansa is probably playing the biggest poker-game ever since it was founded.
The deal on the table is a loan of nine more Billion Euros from the government against 25 percent shares and two voting seats on the board which is not acceptable for CEO Carsten Spohr and his team. LH is currently toying with a controlled bankruptcy.
Condor, on the other hand, has received a governmental loan of 300 Million €uro and can continue with its operation.
- TUI has already received a government loan of 1.8 Billion Euro and the amount is in the TUI accounts. TUI now has 3.3 billion Euro to pay their depths and the first payments shall be processed as of May 04th
- TUI/Airtours have cancelled all customer bookings up till May 15th The good news is that 82% of the clients have rebooked their trips already, 52% of the clients rebooked to the same destination and 41% the same product/hotel.
- 51% of all Germans plan to travel within this year. Germany has the highest number out of all European countries of people willing to travel. They would even book now, if they would not need to worry about cancellation fees or could rebook free of charge and get a refund for the air ticket.
- From June onwards it is expected that domestic travel will be possible again. Within the next six months, 58% of Germans would like to travel within Germany, 38% outside of Germany and 31% said they will only travel in a years’ time. What was impressive is that 26% wish to travel to a beach destination within the next three month.
- The major concerns of the travelers are:
- Safety and security
- To get stuck in a destination and not being able to return home
- The tour operator files bankruptcy
- Very interesting is that only 2% have concerns about the environment.
- To make people book the following booking incentives would help:
- Cancelations without any fees
- Cash return versus vouchers
- Offers with flexible dates
- Inspiring content in Social Media / Communication
- Added benefits for later travel – like vouchers for spa, drinks, Captain’s dinner, wine/sugar/beer/whiskey tastings, cooking classes and so on.
- Destinations: In the current scenario, Croatia is the winner, followed by Seychelles, Mauritius, Morocco, Greece, Indonesia and South Africa. The greatest drop is seen in Spain, USA, UAE and Turkey.
Currently the top destinations for Winter 20/21 are Maldives, UAE and Spain. The requests for summer 2021 are already increasing. - The recovery of tourism?: Airtours sees the bookings picking up as from August onwards and expects travel within Europe as of August/September. Long-haul travel as of Q4 with a bit of luck, but for sure as of festive season 2020/21.
- Facts by Steffan Boenke, Head of TUI Hotelbrands/Cruises & Director airtours, luxury brand of TUI
- For the first time in history, the travel industry has initiated rallies in 30 cities in Germany to create awareness that this industry is hit most. #Safe the travel Industry and #Tourism keeps the world together.
- B2B discussions have finally been initiated about the over-dominant power and influence of large tour operators especially with regards to cash flows, rates and payment morale.
- The voucher solution for already paid travels has been seized by the EU and once again the EU demonstrated how serious they are about consumer rights.
- If you have to go, do it with grandezza: 180 final pages of unusual travel stories, insights into other cultures, heart-warming portraits and always stunning photography is the farewell present to all readers of our oldest travel magazine abenteuer + reisen.
- With 40 years of travel stories, abenteuer + reisen was our oldest monothematical travel magazine and the forerunner of augmented reality and virtual reality in tourism. Readers loved the magazine. But it is difficult to live on love alone.
- I am sure we will soon see a new, digital and even better version of the “old” abenteuer + reisen” – stay tuned!
Update No 3 / April 22, 2020
- It is kind of ironic: Print circulations and classic TV programmes are currently soaring. Among the top-ten TV programmes last week, six were news programmes, three criminal stories !
- And yet the editing houses have to introduce short-time work and even lay off staff because of lack of advertising.
In order not to ask for government subsidies (it would most likely impede their editorial freedom) our five major editing houses are all looking into new formats. - The tendency for new formats is much clearer with audio media (please see below). Print media are slower in their response to possibly new reading or consumption habits. A lot of interesting experiments are currently going on. For example in order to strengthen readership ties, media groups start offering added values such as digital magazines and e‑papers free of charge until April 30 (Gruner + Jahr).
- Following an international survey, consumers expect that brands remain visible in these days and stay in touch. Only 9% of German consumers said that brands should pause their advertising during corona, 51% see ads as information tool and 24% expect to get a feeling of continuity and kind of normality. 13% would appreciate positive and entertaining content with a link to corona but not too much.
- Currently, we see an Audio Boom in Germany, thanks to new PODCASTs and livestreams. Especially travel bloggers and micro influencers’ are tapping into this so far underrepresented field in Germany.
- A few interesting facts on PODCASTS:
- Podcasts are trending: currently there are 22.000 german-speaking podcasts.
- 49% of all smartphone users are familiar with podcasts and 47% follow podcasts
- podcast are especially popular among 14 – 35 year olds. The typical podcast user is tech-savvy, enjoys a trendy lifestyle, has a higher spending pattern and is very podcast-loyal. Pod-casters are their personal mentor and almost best friend!
- Podcast users are a “premium triple A target group”
- In Germany, podcasts are yet to be discovered by advertising brands with Vodafone being the first main sponsor for travel podcasts.
- Besides the already established news&science and comedian podcasts there are currently two newer types of Podcasts:
Branded Podcasts: e.g. Lufthansa, Mercedes,: They all claim a topic or some topics that fit their own brand – Lufthansa = Flying; Mercedes = innovations – but never push their brand on the podcast
Corporate Podcasts: Are mainly for internal use. Nevertheless they need to be done properly and need to be entertaining.
- We have noticed that the 500,000k++ influencers with a reach out to tourism and hospitality have become rather inactive at this moment, For them, sponsored posts declined in March by 39% already, with 80% for tourism influencers. Most of them have turned to more personal posts on their corona lifestyles and the like with much lesser engagement rate than previously.
- Micro influencers,25.000++, follow the most important rule during a crisis: Stay in touch and keep engaged with your audience. Give your community the feeling they are not forgotten & that you still honestly care about them. Their average engagement rates have increased which shows they have a closer connection to their community.
- Bloggers are trending, as they can reach out to their audience with very personal stories. And this is the time to share stories and feelings rather than work on a visual bucketlist or boast with former travel experiences.
- All articles or blogs that appear have in one way or the other to do with corona. – E.g bloggers make video calls with the olive farmer in Italy and ask him and her how they are dealing with the situation. Or the Barrista in New York ….
- #dontcancelpostpone has not really picked up in Germany as it was considered a rather self-centered and ill-timed appeal at the time. Influencers using this # created quite a shitstorm and so did all the #throw back posts.
- „Living in a box“ is an initiative of an Italian company to secure the summer beach season 2020. The company has designed a plexiglas box which is big enough for two sun beds and a parasol and could be set up on beaches to meet the social distancing measures.
Update No 2 / April 8, 2020
- With almost 10 days in a semi-shut down situation the atmosphere in Germany is still okay and the overall acceptance of the current restrictions for social distancing has risen considerably. We can still go out for walks and physical exercise but only as family members or in pairs.
- The local governments have imposed substantial fines for violations of these rules – some of them, however, seem a bit odd. E.g. you are fined 200 Euros for sitting all by yourself on a bench reading a book but as a jogger you may overtake ignoring social distancing L. Opposition and public criticism start rising on social media platforms and even among experts. That’s a good sign as democratic mechanism are still alive J
- Mandatory or not? Protective masks are still a topic. At present, the government still abstains from a general order wearing masks in public areas – even against the strong advice from specialists. People have started producing their own masks. At the same time lawyers are cashing in money with warnings that you are not allowed to call them protective mask and of course you are not allowed selling mask unless you’ve got an official trade number and can prove you are a skilled seamstress!
- Currently the government is preparing phase one out of the shut-down. First information is being expected on or after April 14th. Realistically speaking, we are all looking at May 2nd for a lift of movement and work restrictions.
- Angela Merkel’s third Covid-19 test while in quarantine was negative and she is back on track doing what she can best – crisis communication!
- Our parliament is still working applying massive social distancing. All parties have agreed not to challenge resolutions and debates and voting rights are being bundled with individual members. Maybe the experience gained is a huge chance for post-corona times to reduce our 1.150 member strong parliament to a more workable size – and thus save a lot of money and speed up decision processes considerably.
- After rolling out all possible government aid schemes for employees and com-panies the government has turned to propping up the many small businesses in Germany as these are the back-bone of our economy.
- Overall Message and attitude: Forget about Tourism Year 2020 and look at 2021! Start working on tailor-made recovery plans for your business probably beginning with X‑mas packages and suggestions for X‑mas holidays.
- Now, that the massive work-load with trip cancellations and getting stranded tourist back is over most travel companies have put their staff on furlough or short-time work. DER Touristik, TUI and FTI have gone on up to 80% short-time work for six months from April until September. Germany’s short-time work support is the lowest among all European countries with 60 respectively 67%!
- After quite some pressure from the government and the public, TUI and DER Touristik have decided not to reclaim travel agency commissions for cancellations in order to support liquidity among sales partners and especially KMUs.
- Lufthansa Group shared its extensive plan for restructuring the company. These plans are considered a strong and pretty sobering signal for the whole tourism industry in Germany if not even Europe.
- In a nutshell: Lufthansa Group will put 21 long-haul aircrafts and 21 mid-range distance aircrafts out of operation. Which means a long-haul fleet reduction by 10%!
Germanwings will be closed down. 400 employees (500 pilots and 900 stewards) are made redundant with immediate effect.
The long-distance network of Eurowings, Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Brussels Airlines will also be restructured. More to come soon – and not good news. - Unfortunately, LH CEO Carsten Spohr is not overly optimistic with regards to worldwide business and tourism recovery. According to him it will take months until all national and international travel bans will be lifted and even years until worldwide travel is back to pre-corona times.
- Lufthansa Group shared its extensive plan for restructuring the company. These plans are considered a strong and pretty sobering signal for the whole tourism industry in Germany if not even Europe.
- In a nutshell: Lufthansa Group will put 21 long-haul aircrafts and 21 mid-range distance aircrafts out of operation. Which means a long-haul fleet reduction by 10%!
Germanwings will be closed down. 1.400 employees (500 pilots and 900 stewards) are made redundant with immediate effect.
The long-distance network of Eurowings, Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Brussels Airlines will also be restructured. More to come soon – and not good news. - Unfortunately, LH CEO Carsten Spohr is not overly optimistic with regards to worldwide business and tourism recovery. According to him it will take months until all national and international travel bans will be lifted and even years until worldwide travel is back to pre-corona times.
- Frankfurt International Airport – Europe’s fourth largest airport after London, Paris and Schiphol – closes down Terminal 2 effective April 7th. The airport expects a decline in passenger numbers of about 90 percent in the next weeks.
Just incredible! - Some creative ideas from restaurants, hospitality suppliers and hotels:
Suppliers support restaurants and hotels by postponing terms of payment, by offering support with building online platforms or by letting them use their own softwares. Breweries – very important in the country of beer – even defer payment until the end of the year!
Hotels offer rooms as home-office space e.g. Achat Hotels with more than 4.000 rooms in 33 cities. Rooms are equipped with all technical devices and you can even order room service and a happy hour beer!
B+B Hotels , 500 hotels in 12 countries, offer rooms for special task force staff such as military personnel, doctors, nurses, fire brigades etc.
Update No 1 / March 31, 2020
- Germany is not on a complete shut-down yet but has restricted freedom of movement considerably. Food supplies are almost as normal, local markets with fresh food and vegetables are still open and once a week shops even receive new supplies of toilet paper. However yeast and flour are still rather low on supply ….
- The overall atmosphere in Germany is ok-ish. A couple of politicians have been tested positive on Covid-19 or are in self quarantines – e.g. Angela Merkel.
- The government has introduced a huge financial support programme for the ailing industry, the solo entrepreneurs and basically for everyone. Luckily our economy was rather strong in the past and our tills are full with cash.
- The hospitals are gearing up to be as much ready as they can for when the health situation gets worse. It is ironic that even German doctors had to see and try treating Italian and Spanish patients first before they fully understood the effects of this virus and the limited help they can actually offer if the worst comes to the worst.
These heartbreaking and beyond-imagination reports from nurses and doctors have helped to finally spread the message that we are not talking about flu symptoms. - Germany is facing the same problems with medical supplies and men and women power as all the other countries fighting the virus.
- Our mortality rate is still considerably low however with a much higher percentage in other than the pre-defined high risk groups.
- Possible explanations for the low mortality rate: very early social distancing measure; the no-kiss greeting culture (as opposed to Italy, France), the high number of singles living on their own and without children – and possibly the high number of people who got their annual flu vaccination
- Of course there are many initiatives where companies start sewing masks or producing sanitizers and so on….
- We see a lot of initiatives and creative measure to generate income in these uncertain times. However, this initiatives are all local and mainly tap into the creative supply of everyday needs.
- They are all on fire! We’ve got a strong debate going on about vouchers instead of cancellations.
- All flights in and out of Germany are suspended. Lufthansa has announced that until the end of 2020 they plan to fly only 8 % (eight) of their usual regular flights. If they really do so then we are back at the number of flights in 1956!
- Most of the hotels are closed as the whole business travel has come to a standstill and leisure travel is no longer recommended or banned.
- Hotels have not been asked yet to be stand-by for Covid-19 patients. But this is probably only a question of time.
- Some hotels have announced some non-sensical corona stay-away packages. We cannot say whether they are successful or not. It doesn’t seem to be the right thing to do at this moment.
- The Condor deal is suddenly under pressure as the Polish company that bought Condor (PGL) insists on enormous financial guarantees from the German government now. The government will not give these guarantees.
- Trade media is full with expert information on how to cope with the crisis on all possible levels. Legal advice, business plan advice, psychological advice etc.
- There is no post- corona strategy or planning yet and it would not be credible anyway.
- Consumer media still print travel stories on- and offline as they still have a lot of such stories in stock. However the daily newspapers and travel sections have become slimmer and mostly run stories with a Corona angle
- Online media send their readers on digital dream journeys.
- Influencers have either gone on digital shut-down or are in #throw-back mode sharing their best travel memories.
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